Shottered Crypto Exchange Garantex reportedly returned under a new name after millions of people washed millions with ruble-supported stubcoins and sent them to newly created exchanges, according to a Swiss blockchain analytics company.
Global Ledger claims that the operator of the Russian exchange has shifted liquidity and customer deposits to Grinex. This is a “full successor to Garantex” in a report released on X on March 19th.
“I can confidently state that Grinex and Garantex are directly connected by both Onchain and Offchain.”
“The movement of funds, including the systematic transfer of A7A5 liquidity, the use of wallets used at once, and the involvement of addresses previously associated with Garantex, provides clear on-chine proof of links,” the Global Ledger team said in the report.
After completing the investigation on March 13, Global Ledger said it discovered Onchain data that showed Garantex was washing over $60 million in ruble-backed stub coin called A7A5 and sent it to an address associated with Grinex.
Global Ledger claims that Garantex has moved all its funds into a newly launched exchange and is back in business. Source: Global Ledger
“In this case, we used a fiery build and subsequent mint process to allow new coins to be minted from a system address with a clean history to wash the funds from Garantex,” the team said.
Garantex’s manager also reportedly told Global Ledger that customers were visiting Exchange Office in person and moving funds from Garantex to Grinex.
“In addition, off-chain indicators such as transaction patterns, commentary and exchange behaviors further strengthen this connection.”
The report also points to an explanation of Grinex, the Russian crypto tracking site Coinmarketrating, claiming it was created by the owner of Garantex. “Grinex is not an independent entity, it is a full-fledged successor to Garantex, and continues its financial operations despite the official shutdown of the exchange.”
Source: Global Ledger
By March 14th, the amount of incoming transactions on Grinex was nearly $30 million, according to Global Ledger. CoinMarketrating shows trade volumes exceeding $68 million this month, with spot trading exceeding $2 million.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control first attacked Garantex, which was sanctioned for money laundering violations in April 2022.
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On March 6, the US Department of Justice worked with German and Finnish authorities to freeze domains associated with Garantex.
Stablecoin operator Tether freezes $27 million on Tether (USDT) on March 6th, causing Garantex to stop all operations, including withdrawals.
Just a few days later, on March 12, officials from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Aleksej Bešciokov, who allegedly ran Garantex.
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